Pencil and art of making it



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT M. SHEARER, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

PENCIL AND ART OF MAKING IT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 497,350, dated May 16, 1893.

Application filed February 23, 1893. Serial No. 463,444. (No specimens) To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ROBERT M. SHEARER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Oincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Pencils and the Art of Making Them, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a pencil for use on slates or analogous surfaces, and the invention consists of a pencil com posed of aluminum, and ina process of treating the aluminum for the production of the pencil.

The process of manufacture is as f0lIows:-- I take a rod or wire of aluminum of the desired diameter, anneal it and cut it into the desired lengths. The blanks are then placed in a bath of caustic soda where they may remain for some minutes, preferably about twenty minutes. They are then removed from the solution of caustic soda and treated to a Water bath. After this I prefer to subject the blanks to a bath of nitric acid or chlorate of potash in order to take off the bright shiny appearance and give them a soft frosty surface which is more agreeable to the touch. This should be followed by another water bath.

Apencil may be made from aluminum but I find by experiment that the bath of caustic soda softens the material and greatly reduces the liability to scratch, and produces a far 3. The herein described process of making, I

aluminum pencils consisting of annealing the wire and subjecting the blanks to a bath of caustic soda, a water bath, a bath of nitric acid or chlorate of potash and a second water bath, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

I ROBERT M. SHEARER.

WVitnesses:

JAMES N. RAMSEY, BENJAMIN BLooH. 

